An Afternoon Into Extinction

By P.J. DiBenedetto

Christopher and Madison are two unlikely friends getting ready to graduate from Hooverdale Middle School. Chris is rambunctious and  carefree. Maddie on the other hand, is incredibly smart and timid. They have an undeniable bond that will be tested when they make an unbelievable and incredible discovery at their "Secret Spot&

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wonder Dog Writing Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781643164168

P.J. DiBenedetto

P.J. DiBenedetto is an author, illustrator and master storyteller. He illustrates and brings his amazing imagination to print. His fictional fantasy adventures will also include a life lesson that will cause the reader to reflect. P.J. DiBenedetto lives with his wife and son in Sunnyvale, California.

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Copyright 2018 by P.J. DiBenedetto.

All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, journal or magazine.

First printing

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-64255-687-2

PUBLISHED BY WONDER DOG WRITING GROUP

www.wonderdogwritinggroup.com

Sunnyvale

Printed in the United States of America

"I think I know what this might be.

But it can’t be.

It just can’t be!"

CHAPTER 1

This story could have occurred anywhere. It could’ve happened in a bustling city, in the suburbs, or in a quiet town in the country. The one thing that is for sure is that this happened to two very close friends. It was a much simpler time, where no one had a cellphone. Kids could stay outside and play in their neighborhood until the streetlights came on with the early shadows of the night. Children could ride their bicycles up and down the street without much care except an occasional scrape on a knee when balance was lost.

No one knows why certain things happen at a specific time or place. Is it luck or fate? I guess no one can really answer that question. But at this certain time and place, two frightened large eyes peered from cover in the forest. These eyes were no longer of this earth. A creature’s heartbeat fluttered with anxiety until fate intervened.

This is a story of a close friendship between two very different kids. One was smart and serious while the other was rambunctious and carefree. Christopher James was a thirteen-year-old boy without a care in the world. He got good grades in the eighth grade at Hooverdale Middle School, but Chris, as his friends called him, didn’t worry much over things that he could not control. Once he turned in his homework assignment, he didn’t think twice about it or stress over the grade a teacher would place on the paper after micro-judging it for grammar and punctuation. Chris was well liked by most of the kids at the school, and what made him cool was the fact that he didn’t care what others really thought about him. He just seemed to have a built-in confidence, and "boy" did he like to have fun.

If you looked at Chris, you would see a handsome boy and think he was an athlete. He had broad shoulders with a thin waist, and he never wore a belt, as his Levi pants sagged on the curvature of his backside, exposing the top band of his plaid underwear. Chris had long wavy brown hair that usually rested wildly on his tee-shirted shoulders. He also had a hint or whisper of a mustache visible in the right light on the upper lip of his square-chinned face. I mentioned that Chris, by appearance seemed to be athletic, but not in the conventional sense. He didn’t play baseball, football, or basketball like most boys his age. Christopher would rather spend his time trying to grind a rail on his skateboard. Many security guards knew Chris at the local strip mall, where some of the kids liked to hang out. They didn’t care for him much because the click and clatter of his skateboard would cause the shop owners to take notice. I had a sense, though, that the security guards respected Chris, as they smiled when he would do some over-the-top trick on his skateboard that was worthy of an X Games highlight reel.

It takes two people to create the special bond known as friendship. Some friendships can last a lifetime, and some can only last a moment but be remembered fondly until the end of time. I believe the friendship in this story will endure the test of time. It wasn’t forced by some need or preconceived notion of prestige. It just happened to be the right place and time between a boy and a girl that had an undeniable natural chemistry. The kids at the middle school couldn’t understand their friendship. They didn’t get it. Most of the girls would have loved to be seen hanging out with Chris. They all wondered why he would spend time with her.

Before I go too far, I should introduce the other half of this special friendship: her name is Madison Addison. Most of her friends called her Maddie, but some would go further and call her Maddie Addie as she passed by. She didn’t care for the Addie part but didn’t let the other kids know how she felt. Maddie learned a long time ago that if she let them know that it bothered her, the name calling would only intensify.

Maddie Addison was twelve years old, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of math to figure out she was one year younger than Chris. Maddie, however, was also in the eighth grade at Hooverdale Middle School but didn’t take the same classes as Chris. She was an overachiever, and boy was she smart. Maddie skipped the sixth grade and was enrolled in all honor classes at the school. She worked extremely hard, and she cared about everything she did. When Maddie turned in a homework assignment, she couldn’t wait to get it back and see what mark she received from the teacher. She took criticism very hard and was even harder on herself.

Maddie seemed to be small for her age and only came up to Chris’s shoulder when they stood side by side. Her hair was sandy blonde and naturally curly. Maddie didn’t fuss with her hair much; she usually kept it out of her eyes with a plastic clip. Red was her favorite color. Her skin was fair and lightly speckled with freckles.

Now Madison Addison had other interests besides school. She loved fashion and really enjoyed to sketch drawings of new-wave clothing in her notebook that she always carried with her. She had dreams of one day having other kids wearing her clothing designs. Maddie sketched dresses, pantsuits, and even casualwear items like baseball caps and beanies.

When Madison and Christopher would have a quiet moment together, she would share her latest drawings with him. Chris was very intent and listened to every word and description Maddie would tell him. You wouldn’t think a kid like Chris would care about fashion and that kind of stuff, but he was genuinely interested because it was important to her. He would affectionately call her, Madison Avenue after the famous street in New York City. Maddie would smile when Chris called her that name, and she kept it in a warm spot close to her heart.

Others thought this friendship seemed to be an unlikely union between two kids. As I described, they were two very different people and to the eye didn’t seem to have much in common. So how did they become such close friends?

Madison lived her whole life across the street from Christopher. They lived on Sycamore Street, which was heavily shaded with - well you guessed it, Sycamore trees. It was a middleclass neighborhood, and both of their parents worked full time trying to pay the mortgage to make ends meet. Their houses were modest, single-story homes. Chris and Maddie had the essentials. Maddie loved her pink cruiser bicycle with a white basket on the handlebars, and Chris would never be seen without his skateboard.

The proximity of their homes wasn’t the primary reason for this special friendship. They were close in age, only one year apart, but that wasn’t the catalyst that fueled this relationship. The most important bond between these two was the fact they were both only children in their families. Most of the other families had two or three children, and some even had more. But not the James and Addison families, there was only